stop shoulding on yourself

Writers love-love-love it when someone starts a sentence with, “You know what you should write . . . .” We want to reply, “Is that right? Well, you know what you SHOULD do?”

What’s funny is, as much as I resent someone else telling me what I should write and can easily dismiss it (unless it’s an awesome idea!), I have a much harder time ignoring every should I pile on myself.

Do any of these sound familiar to you?

I should be published by now.
I should be able to edit my manuscript on my own.
I should read more.
I should be writing every day.
I should be done with this novel.

Those shoulds can really stack up. So, what should we do?

Consider sorting your shoulds. By that I mean, ask–Is this should self-imposed and unrealistic because I’m comparing myself to someone else?